We near the end of the first month of the season, and there are many great story lines on the ice. The Avalanche are still cruising, Alexander Ovechkin is still scoring, Anze Kopitar and the Los Angeles Kings are making waves on the west coast, there is still a double-standard for suspensions, the defending champs look dominant, even though Crosby isn’t top-ten in scoring and now teams are starting to sniff around for possible trades.

All summer we heard that the salary cap would be significantly lower next season; due to the downturn in the economy. The NHL is predominantly a gate-driven league, although they do make some money via television, but the majority of the money comes from the fans. Many expected attendance to drop, but early on this season we haven’t seen a major dip, outside of Phoenix.

Here is a look at league-wide attendance last year, and how it has looked so far this year courtesy of www.espn.com.

2008/2009

2009/2010

RNK

TEAM

GMS

AVG

PCT

TEAM

GMS

AVG

PCT

1

Chicago

41

22,247

111.2

Chicago

7

20,238

102.6

2

Ottawa

41

18,949

105

Toronto

5

19,252

102.4

3

Minnesota

41

18,568

102.8

Vancouver

7

18,810

102.1

4

Toronto

41

19,312

102.7

Pittsburgh

6

17,079

100.7

5

Pittsburgh

41

16,975

102.6

Minnesota

3

18,192

100.7

6

NY Rangers

41

18,172

102.3

San Jose

3

17,562

100.4

7

Vancouver

41

18,630

101.1

Ottawa

6

18,550

100.3

8

Philadelphia

41

19,545

100.2

Montreal

6

21,273

100

9

Montreal

41

21,273

100

Calgary

6

19,289

100

10

Calgary

41

19,289

100

NY Rangers

7

18,200

100

11

Edmonton

41

16,839

100

Edmonton

8

16,839

100

12

San Jose

41

17,488

100

Philadelphia

6

19,369

99.3

13

Buffalo

41

18,531

99.2

Buffalo

5

18,443

98.7

14

Detroit

41

19,865

99

Washington

6

18,277

97.9

15

Anaheim

41

16,990

98.9

Detroit

4

19,183

95.6

16

Boston

41

17,039

97

Boston

6

16,756

95.4

17

Washington

41

18,097

96.9

Dallas

4

17,229

93

18

Dallas

41

17,680

95.4

New Jersey

4

16,114

91.4

19

New Jersey

41

15,790

89.6

St. Louis

4

19,150

91.2

20

Los Angeles

41

16,488

89.1

Anaheim

6

15,092

87.9

21

Carolina

41

16,572

88.5

Colorado

4

15,696

87.2

22

St. Louis

41

18,554

88.4

Columbus

3

15,563

85.8

23

Nashville

41

15,010

87.7

Los Angeles

5

15,798

85.4

24

Columbus

41

15,543

85.7

Atlanta

3

15,560

83.9

25

Colorado

41

15,429

85.7

Carolina

4

15,629

83.4

26

Tampa Bay

41

16,497

85.6

Florida

3

15,655

81.3

27

Phoenix

41

14,875

85

Nashville

4

13,572

79.3

28

NY Islanders

41

13,773

84.5

Tampa Bay

5

14,987

75.9

29

Florida

41

15,621

81.2

NY Islanders

5

12,065

74

30

Atlanta

41

14,626

78.9

Phoenix

5

10,699

61.1

You will notice that the 12 teams that sold out every game last year are all there, although Philly is just under 100% right now. You would think that if L.A and Colorado continue to be competitive their totals will increase, but from top-to-bottom we haven’t seen a major difference that would lead us to believe the salary cap will drop that significantly.

If the cap stays the same or drops marginally, it will allow many teams including the Oilers, Flames and Canucks to not purge their team. For next season the Oilers have $42.185 million committed to 14 players. The Flames have $44.075 million for 14 players, while the Canucks have $36.625 million committed to 13 players.

The Flames have Dustin Boyd and Brandon Prust as young guys, but have Rene Bourque, Olli Jokinen, Craig Conroy and Erik Nystrom as UFAs.

The Canucks have RFAs like Ryan Kesler, Raymond Mason, Jannik Hansen and Tanner Glass, while their main UFA is Willie Mitchell. They will have to decide if the other unrestricted guys; Pavol Demitra, Kyle Wellwood, Ryan Johnson and Mathieu Schneider are worthy of new contracts.

If the cap doesn’t go down significantly, it will make life much easier for Mike Gillis, Steve Tambellini and Darryl Sutter this summer.

Ice women of the week

It pains me to say this, but even Calgary is ahead of Edmonton when it comes to Ice Women, I call them Ice Women because they are of age and thus women. The Flames have Ice Women now, but they didn’t make my photo of the week. Instead, I will go with this photo-shopped pic of the Dallas Stars Women.

Random thoughts

Yes the Flames have Ice Women, but they also play the most annoying song ever, Cotton Eyed Joe at the Saddledome, and what is worse is the crowd sings along. Just another reason the Rexall DJ must continue to boycott CEJ.

Strange stat. Sidney Crosby has three career hat tricks, and two of them have come on October 28th according to www.nhl.com.

Strange stat part two. Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have taken the 3rd most minor penalties in the league with eight. Only Hal Gill and Scottie Upshall with nine and Mike Komisarek (10) have been in the sin bin more often.

The more I watch James Neal the more I like him. The Stars drafted him 33rd overall in 2005, and he has developed nicely since. He spent one year with Iowa in the AHL, and then broke out with a 24-goal campaign as an NHL rookie last year. The 22-year-old has 14 points in 12 games and has a solid overall game. He skates well, has size, blocks shots and has great vision. He will be a guy to watch for on the 2014 Canadian Olympic team.

I don’t think the USA will be that good at the Olympics, but with Craig Anderson and Ryan Miller off to great starts, they should have solid netminding. Both have been sensational, and are the main reason the Sabres and Avalanche lead their divisions.

The best Canadian goalie this month has been Marc-Andre Fleury. Barring an injury Roberto Luongo, Martin Brodeur and Fleury will be the three goalies in Vancouver.

Jeff Deslauriers has a ridiculous .957 SV% and a stellar 1.51 GAA in two games this season. Shouldn’t Pat Quinn use him again soon?

Another bad week for the NHL injury-wise. Ilya Kovalchuk, Roberto Luongo and Simon Gagne all went down. Is it just me or does the NHL have more injuries to top stars than the NFL, NBA and MLB. Hockey is a tough game, and I don’t think there is any way to prevent the stars from getting hurt.

I can’t stand the Yankees. Go Phillies. Cliff Lee was sick in game one, and Chase Utley is a gamer. But let’s hope that Pedro ‘Soul Glo” Martinez doesn’t allow the Yankees to be “His Daddy” in game two.

Using the Cheers theme music for the Kelsey’s commercial doesn’t fit. Sorry, but that’s not a place you go often enough that people know your name.

Teams with the most fights are the Flames (13), Oilers, Leafs and Sharks (11), Canucks (10) and Senators and Canadiens (9). The six Canadian teams are in the top seven. Seems they understand what most hockey fans enjoy.

The Kings and Rangers each have four players in the top 30 in scoring. The Rangers won’t maintain that, but the Kings might with Anze Kopitar, Ryan Smyth, Dustin Brown and Alexander Frolov.

Terry Murray benched Alexander Frolov in Dallas and since then he has three goals and seven points in four games. Do many of you still think that benching a player and telling the media and fans he has to be better is really that bad???

Say what!?

Salo has had 39 injuries in his career”, Farhan Lalji from TSN on Just A Game. Seriously he wasn’t lying. Salo is the biggest band-aid in the game.

“I will go down as the first NHL player to play with H1N1”... Ladislav Smid.

“The Flames will come out strong and see if Colorado can handle their physical game. If they can’t it might be a blowout for Calgary”, Jermaine Franklin on Flames radio pre-game show. The Avs were 9-1-2 going in, how could anyone think they would get blown out. Avs won their 10th game.

Final point

There have been 15 OT goals this year, and the Montreal Canadiens have four of them. Cammalleri, Roman Hamrlik, Josh Gorges and Brian Gionta have scored.

One of Canada's most versatile sports personalities. Jason hosts The Jason Gregor Show, weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m., on TSN 1260, and he writes a column every Monday in the Edmonton Journal. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JasonGregor

ha ha ... I thought, why lie, tell the truth. I'm at work around 6:30, grab coffee and then start.

sounds like you need to become a season ticket holder ... :o) ... or are you one of the out of towners ?

my parents come in 40 miles for games - they attend about 25 a year and they definitely like the 7:00 pm starts.

I don't have the money to spend on tickets, wouldn't be bad if I just had to buy one but I can justify buying two tickets. Plus I have a drinking problem when my team is playing poorly and 8 bucks a beer is too steep.

I was at tuesday's game and was never embarassed that much in my life to see how quite the crowd is.

What they should do is move everyone in the 300 section down to the lower section behind the Oilers bench for one game and see the difference.

I disagree with IgorUlanov, Tambellini has taken the reins of a team that is overpaid and underperforming as a .500 club over time. First and Foremost, Oilers came out the game with the exact same record last year and the wheels fell off - so is the rose off the bloom already ?????
Until the overpayments of Lowe have run their course, or have been dispursed via waivers - or trade (taking a bad contract back) having a playoff team will be a challenge.
Problem is that Lowe in the past has let emotion and the post stanley cup run / free agent frenzy diminished the available money to "performers" as the pretenders have taken more than their fair share.

Lowe cancelled the Comrie trade for Corey Perry out of spite via blood money. The media pull a Mark Mcgwire here and do not talk about the past - this was a bonehead move - Corey FREAKIN PERRY.

Lowe surrendered draft choices for Penner.
Placing Penners non performance the last two years aside for a minute, why would a GM surrender draft picks and overpay, when you could just overpay a free agent - case in point - the Nylander case, he was playing possum and possibly using the deal as leverage with Buffalo - refusing to proceed with the verbal agreement. So it appears at that time, very few players wanted to actually come to Edmonton. Isn't it ironic that the the two GM's at the time throwing mud at each other, calling each other idiots - TRADE THEIR TWO
FIRST ROUND DRAFT PICKS with Penner and Kessel.

MacTavish despised Nillson's work ethic, and Lowe signs the kid for two more years for 4.5mm dollars - OMG.

Horcoff learns quickly from Tie Domi (Tanenbaum) on how to influence people, rumored to be Katz's workout friend - signing for more money than the market warranted - not his fault, back up the truck.

http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/story.html?id=88fe637a-c56e-40aa-8301-4ffce4931d2b
Reference: Mr. Tanenbaum and Mr. Domi are known to be friends, but those close to the owners say if the general manager was nudged, it didn't happen inside the boardroom.

Is anyone comfortable with Pasini's contract,
we have been blessed with financial relief on the LTIR - untradeable for both medical and money reasons.

Final signing of Khabibulin raises my eyebrows,
when the Oil pushed Rollie out the door due to age, and we now have an aging goaltender past 40 at 3.75mm per year when the contract is over. Paying Khabibulin may be a thorn in our side if JDD starts to shine, this year, next etc - when Anderson (1.5 and 2.1mm two year deal) and Biron (1.8mm one year) were available.

Oilers have very little cap space, with 89 and 13 coming out of their entry level deals, something has to give, as the math will not allow this formula next year.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda..... time will heal these contract mistakes, only time. Rexall Sports have corrected the situation with promoting / extracting Lowe and removing him from this equation to prevent future harm.

I don't have the money to spend on tickets, wouldn't be bad if I just had to buy one but I can justify buying two tickets. Plus I have a drinking problem when my team is playing poorly and 8 bucks a beer is too steep.

I was at tuesday's game and was never embarassed that much in my life to see how quite the crowd is.

What they should do is move everyone in the 300 section down to the lower section behind the Oilers bench for one game and see the difference.

Just tell me you weren't the guy behind me at the game with the two Aussie chicks who was trying to explain hockey to them ... lol

You are correct we are just pandering to Horcoff...clearly you haven't been listening.

I asked him straight out if he is pressing, and what has to change.

I heard you ask this Question, but why worry about you image to the guys and ask him a harder a question like.

" Do you think your play right now we be better suited on the third line, or would playing with the 4th line guys help give you a jump start?"

or

" Shawn, do you think some of your minutes on the PP should go to Brule or Cogliano? and if so how you talked to Coach Quinn about this?"

You don't ask a player if he should give up ice time? No proud player in any sport would ever say yes to that. He still believes in himself, so his response would be NO. And no player goes to his coach and yes give me less responsibility.

That's like a regular joe going to his boss and saying, I think Kevin the young kid could do my job better. It is up to the coach/boss to limit his role.

Quinn hinted at it early this week, when he said Horcoff works hard, but needs to work smarter. The only area they will lessen his minutes in the future in on the PP. He is still their most reliable centre five on five, so they won't cut down his ice time there.

I already said, I'd like to see Brule get a shot on the PP, and he will tonight. Of course not at Horcoff's expense, but because Comrie won't play.

And getting his salary off the books, won't happen. No team will take him, and the Oilers won't hide for years in the minors. Because if they did send him down, and then needed to recall him, a team would scoop him up in a second for half the price. Then the Oilers would be on the hook for $2.75 million and getting no return.

Now in two years if he is still struggling they might think about it, because then there is only three years left on the deal. At least might be acceptable for them to swallow.

And it isn't about worrying about an image with the players. I've asked Horcoff hard questions before and he has been professional about them.

The scary thing about Horcoff is that during this drought he is ACTUALLY getting scoring chances, but can't finish. If that continues his confidence might completely erode. When you aren't getting chances you don't expect to score, but if he keeps getting chances and gets nothing then he could be in trouble.

I don't think his overall game has been bad this year, except his finish. You don't see him turn the puck over, and rarely does he make a bad decision in his own zone, and that is why it is hard for Quinn not to play him.

Eventually he will have to score, or I could see Quinn giving Brule or Cogliano more icetime.

A classy reply, Tyler. You took a bit of an open ice hit there, and instead of slashing in response or looking for a cheap penalty, tipped your hat and skated for the bench. There will be other battles in your next shift, I'm sure.